5.  The applicants were born in 1928 and 1930 respectively and live in Sofia.
6.  The applicants were acknowledged as heirs to their father’s rights over a plot of land of 1,219 square metres situated by the sea coast in the area around Sozopol, acquired in the 1930s pursuant to legislation allocating agricultural land to refugees. In the 1950s the authorities considered the land abandoned and later on, in the 1960s, entered it in the register of state‑owned property. During the same period the municipality of Stara Zagora took over the use of the land and constructed a student summer camp, which, at the time, consisted of two solid-construction buildings and twenty-two wooden bungalows. The buildings were entered into the register of state-owned property in 1964. At the time of the events in the present case the camp consisted of three solid-construction buildings and twenty-six wooden bungalows, spread over 17,705 square metres of land, which included the plot claimed by the applicants (see paragraph 7 below). During the domestic proceedings discussed below the municipality of Stara Zagora alleged that they had had an agreement with the Sozopol municipality (in the area of which the land was situated) for exchange of land in their respective regions.
7.  In 1991, following the enactment of the Agricultural Land Act (“the ALA”), the applicants applied for the restitution of the land. In a decision of 20 October 1997 the Sozopol agricultural land commission held that the land was to be restored in its “actual boundaries”. The commission did not comment on the existence of any buildings or other construction on the plot, referring to it as “an abandoned plot covered with perennial weeds” adjoining a student summer camp. The municipality of Stara Zagora did not participate in those proceedings.
8.  On 10 April 1998 the land commission issued an act formally transferring possession of the plot to the applicants on the basis of the above decision. On 22 July 1998 the applicants obtained a notary deed (констативен нотариален акт). However, they did not assume actual possession of the land, which remained occupied by the student camp.
9.  Referring to instructions from the Minister of Agriculture and unspecified decisions by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, on 1 March 1999 the Sozopol land commission reversed its earlier decision concerning the same property and refused to restore to the applicants 879 square metres of the land, which formed part of “the Stara Zagora summer camp”.
10.  The applicants applied for judicial review, arguing that the decision of 1 March 1999 was unlawful as it was issued in the absence of new circumstances or evidence which could permit amendments to the decision of 20 October 1997, and that for this reason it should be quashed.
11.  On 26 July 1999 the Burgas District Court quashed the decision of 1 March 1999. It found that it had not been open to the land commission to re-examine the matter and upheld the commission’s earlier decision of 20 October 1997 holding that the applicants were entitled to have the 879 square metres of land restored “in actual boundaries”. The District Court further held that, based on the evidence before it, the applicants were entitled to the restitution of the land, no evidence having been presented to it to establish that any lawful construction works within the meaning of section 10(7) of the ALA (see paragraph 31 below) had been carried out prior to that Act’s entry into force. It noted that even though it appeared that the land had undergone a change of use and had ceased to be agricultural, there was no evidence before it to establish that this change had been effected in accordance with the relevant procedures provided for by law.
12.  Noting further that the decision of the land commission of 1 March 1999 was also based on findings that the Stara Zagora municipality was the owner of the plot, the District Court found that there was no evidence to establish its property rights; in 1964 the municipality had merely been allowed to use the land, which had remained State-owned. The domestic court noted that in any event,
“[e]ven if a property dispute exists, it is to be decided upon in civil proceedings, and not by the Minister of Agriculture. There is no doubt in law and in legal theory that neither the land commission nor the courts acting in administrative proceedings are competent to examine disputes concerning the property rights of third parties who have not participated in the proceedings”.
13.  The District Court did not deal with the potential applicability of section 10b of the ALA (see paragraph 30 below) to the circumstances of the case. No appeal was lodged against its judgment, and it became final on an unspecified date.
14.  On 6 December 1999 the Governor of the Burgas region, to which the Sozopol district belonged, entered the land occupied by the summer camp in the register of “private” State property, in application of the 1996 State Property Act.
15.  On 20 January 2000 the Governor transferred ownership of the land in issue to the Stara Zagora municipality.
16.  Following the judgment of 26 July 1999, the applicants requested the Stara Zagora municipality to vacate the property. As the municipality did not do so, they brought a rei vindicatio claim, claiming that the municipality had no legal grounds to occupy the land in question. The applicants considered the land in issue to be their property on the basis of the land commission’s decision of 20 October 1997, as confirmed by the decision of the Burgas District Court of 26 July 1999. They further claimed compensation for lost profit, and requested that the defendant be ordered to demolish the existing buildings on the land.
17.  The Burgas District Court appointed an expert, who visited the plot and confirmed that it lay entirely within the boundaries of the summer camp and was occupied by twelve wooden bungalows, concrete paths, a water fountain and lawns.
18.  By a judgment of 14 April 2000 the Burgas District Court allowed the rei vindicatio claim, finding that the Stara Zagora municipality had failed to support its claim that it had validly acquired ownership rights to the plot in issue. Records of meetings held by the municipal councils of Stara Zagora and Sozopol in 1960 showed that steps had been taken with a view to exchanging properties between the two municipalities; however, there was no evidence that the exchange procedure had been finalised through the signing of contracts, as required by law. As to the entry of the land in the register of state-owned property in 1999 and its transfer to the Stara Zagora municipality in 2000 (see paragraphs 14 and 15 above), the District Court pointed out that the relevant decisions had been taken after the judgment of 26 July 1999 and that the municipality’s reliance on these documents contradicted its position that it had acquired the land by virtue of an exchange agreement with the Sozopol municipality.
19.  The District Court thus concluded that the Stara Zagora municipality had no legal grounds to retain possession of the plot and ordered it to surrender it to the applicants. In addition, it awarded the applicants 10,000 Bulgarian levs in damages for lost profit resulting from their inability to use the plot from 20 October 1997 to 20 October 1999.
20.  On 1 November 2000 the Burgas Regional Court upheld the above judgment and dismissed an appeal lodged by the Stara Zagora municipality, which argued that the decision to restore ownership to the applicants was not binding on it as it had not been a party to the proceedings, that the lower court had erred in applying the legislation relevant to exchange of property between municipalities, and that it had failed to take into account the fact that following its designation for a summer camp the land was no longer agricultural and was therefore not subject to restitution.
21.  The Stara Zagora municipality lodged an appeal on points of law against the judgment of 1 November 2000. It contested the assumption of the lower courts that the applicants had obtained ownership rights, pointing out that their restitution claims had been allowed in proceedings to which it had not been a party and in which it had not had a reasonable opportunity to defend its rights. It considered that the applicants could not seek restitution of the land “in actual boundaries” because the ALA did not envisage the restitution of land which had ceased to be agricultural before its entry into force. Furthermore, it contested the lower courts’ conclusion that it had not itself become an owner of the land, given that, in its view, the requirements of the law, as in force in 1960, had been complied with.
22.  On 21 January 2002 the Supreme Court of Cassation quashed the judgment of 1 November 2000 and remitted the case to the Burgas Regional Court, finding that it had failed to properly examine whether the preconditions for the restitution of the plot, in particular under sections 2 and 10b of the ALA (see paragraphs 29-30 below), were met. It pointed out that former owners of agricultural land were not entitled to restitution in kind where construction carried out on it prevented its return.
23.  The Burgas Regional Court re-examined the case. It admitted an expert opinion saying that the land could be re-cultivated for the purposes of agricultural use after a possible removal of the existing temporary buildings.
24.  By a judgment of 26 March 2003 the Regional Court dismissed the applicants’ rei vindicatio claim. It accepted the objection raised by the Stara Zagora municipality that section 10b of the ALA prohibited restitution of land in cases where “a complex of construction works” had been put in place on the plot. In addition, relying on section 24(2), (3) and (4) of the ALA (see paragraphs 32 below), the Regional Court found that the restitution of the plot in issue was barred on the ground that it served an important need of the Stara Zagora municipality, namely to provide holiday facilities for students.
25.  The applicants lodged an appeal on points of law, arguing, inter alia, that the judgment of 26 July 1999 had been binding on all parties and it had not been open to the courts to re-examine whether the land claimed by them met the requirements for restitution in kind.
26.  In a final judgment of 30 March 2005, the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the Burgas Regional Court’s judgment. As to the arguments raised by the applicants, it found that the applicants had been aware of the fact that a third party had competing interests in the summer camp and that these claims remained to be examined in subsequent proceedings. Noting that the disputed plot was not formally allocated as urban territory, the Supreme Court found that section 10(7) of the ALA was not applicable. However, the buildings on the land in question formed a part of a “complex of construction works” within the meaning of section 10b of the ALA, with temporary and permanent buildings, paths, and other infrastructure. The Supreme Court considered that it was unacceptable to separate one part of that complex and return it to its former owners. It noted in this regard that the approach proposed by the applicants would be contrary to the intent of the law, which was to offer compensation where restitution in kind was inappropriate.
27.  Following the developments above and the ensuing impossibility to obtain restitution in kind, the applicants have not sought to receive compensation in lieu of restitution, as they were entitled to do under the ALA.